Add a variety of powers to Ubuntu’s dashboard, allowing you to quickly find news, stock information, the weather in any town, or even torrents. It’s just a matter of finding and installing the right lenses, and the “Scopes” PPA contains several.

Not everyone loves it, but Ubuntu’s dashboard is great for searching. Bring up the menu, start typing and quickly find the program or document you want. Lenses make it possible to search for more than just your applications and documents. With the right lense, you can search for anything from recipes to songs to news. Find out how to install and use these lenses below.

I only tested these lenses on the latest version of Ubuntu: 12.04, and I don’t think these instructions will work for anything older than 11.10. Sorry, users of older versions. Having said that, if you’re using a recent version of Ubuntu, these lenses are completely worth checking out.

What Is A Lense?

So, how does one use a lense? They’re found at the bottom of the dashboard; they’re the little icons. Click one and you can search for a wide variety of things. For example: the built-in “video” lens is a quick way to search YouTube and other video sites:

Conclusion

I think you get the idea. Lenses gives you quick access to different sorts of information. New ones are created constantly, so I couldn’t hope to outline all of them. Here are just a few more highlights :

Wikipedia

Calculator

Deviant Art

Flickr

Grooveshark

Dictionary

Graphic Design

Which lenses do you like adding to Ubuntu? Let us know in the comments below!

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Justin Pot is a technology journalist based in Portland, Oregon. He loves technology, people and nature – and tries to enjoy all three whenever possible. You can chat with Justin on Twitter, right now.